StarForce

For the video game, see Star Force.

StarForce is a software copy prevention brand by the Russian developer Protection Technology. Its various implementations are compatible with some versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Its main strength lies in wrapping executable and DLL files using byte-code interpreted through its own virtual machine.

StarForce is believed to operate by measuring the physical angle between the first and last written sector on the CD. This will be identical on all copies pressed from the gold master but is at present difficult to reproduce when burning a duplicate CD.

In addition to this, StarForce, along with SafeDisc and SecuROM copy prevention systems, uses blacklists of optical drive emulation programs such as Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% (at time of writing StarForce cannot detect these programs), as well as blocking the use of SCSI optical drives when IDE optical drives are present in the system. The latter measure is due to the fact that many optical drive emulation programs appear as SCSI drives. If no IDE drives are present, however, SCSI drives will function normally without interference from StarForce.

StarForce protection is considered difficult to reverse engineer, games protected by it can be cloned, but sometimes are not cracked. According to StarForce developers, they monitor newly released StarForce cracks, and constantly release updates to fix newly discovered flaws.[1].

StarForce Family Of Products

The versions of StarForce known to exist at present are:

• "StarForce Pro 3" (official designation): Requires a "disk key" to be entered when the game is installed. This key is the same for all copies of the game, as it encodes the nature of the protection scheme as present on the master; thus most games use a traditional "CD key" as well for online play. (Present on Trackmania, Chaos League, Etherlords 2 ,Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones)

• "StarForce Keyless" (official designation): Added optional feature of StarForce 3.x PRO. No disk key is required to be entered. However, it should be noted that this key still exists internally. The key is stored in one of the disk's TOC fields instead. See the whitepaper at: http://www.star-force.com/solutions/papers/Whitepaper_Keyless.pdf. (Present on Trackmania Sunrise, Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich.) This version may also be used on the game version of Peter Jackson's King Kong.

• "StarForce Pro 3.5" (official designation): Now supports 64-bit systems.

Ubisoft, Digital Jesters, Codemasters, and Egosoft are now known to use StarForce routinely on newly released software.

Criticism

StarForce has received criticism for installing its own device driver onto computers. Some users claim that the StarForce drivers can cause optical drives to fail, although it has never been demonstrated how this could occur. According to the StarForce EULA, they are not responsible for failures. [2] Supporters of StarForce hold that the stability problems were exaggerated and have been resolved in newer versions of StarForce. A large number of gamers have advocated boycotts of games or publishers known to use StarForce.

On 30th January 2006 Boing Boing, a popular weblog, labelled Starforce as malware, alleging several problems associated with the protection system, including disk drive performance degradation, weakening of operating system security and stability. A day later on 31 January 2006 Boing Boing received an email from Starforce, threatening a lawsuit and stating that the article was "full of insults, lies, false accusations and rumors". CNET also ran a similar story, and has received similar email. However, Protection Technologies have never proven these claims as false.

On 5th March 2006, a StarForce employee posted a link [3] to an illegal download source of Galactic Civilizations 2, a game developed by StarDock which does not use copy protection. This was widely publicized online. Starforce later issued an apology for this act [4].

In March it was stated by Computer Gaming World magazine that the potential exists for StarForce to do actual hardware damage, a claim StarForce has always strongly denied. CGW states that in certain circumstances StarForce will cause windows to access optical drives in Programmed input/output mode which may cause damage in some drives if used for an extended period. StarForce responded strongly, stating "The issue on StarForce is obviously sponsored by our competitors or organized crime groups that run CD/DVD piracy [operations]. We are now in close cooperation with [US and Russian officials] investigating the matter and trying to find out who stands behind the boycott campaign".

Effectiveness

StarForce's developers and supporters boast of the effectiveness of the copy protection system, usually that games protected by StarForce have the least cracks. Critics state that many gamers have boycotted games protected by StarForce and that the protection system only protects against casual copying. StarForce protected games are commonly distributed inside the scene as Clonecd copies with the protection system intact. The protection can be usually bypassed by disabling IDE devices or through the use of a program such as StarForce Nightmare or StarFucker.

Problems

A current problem is that software protected with older versions of StarForce will not operate on machines using 64-bit Windows, since the StarForce device driver is 32-bit; thus the OS will not allow it to install. Although Protection Technology has produced a 64-bit version of the driver, it is not possible to use this driver with software protected using the original 32-bit only version; thus, a patch from the developer of the protected software is also required and so far few developers have provided such patches. StarForce protected software that will work on 64-bit Windows can be identified by the presence of a .x64 file in the software's install directory. Additionally, upon starting the game, StarForce will sometimes take several minutes to verify the game disc. This behavior is sporadic, and may go through phases where it is unable to verify the disc, only to open correctly the next time the program is run. Some gamers have called for a boycotted the use of StarForce protected games. Ubisoft decided to investigate the matter of why people are boycotting it and placed a poll on their forums, the outcome of the poll was against the use of Starforce.

See also

• Securom
• Safedisc
• Sony XCP

External links

• Official site
• StarForce Drivers Removal Tool
• Boycott Starforce website and its list of games using StarForce
• Another list of games using StarForce

News coverage

• "StarForce Interview and Piracy Discussion": interview with Abbie Sommer of StarForce (FiringSquad, August 18, 2004)
• "Irritation-Ware: Copy protection with a mean streak", (Broadbandreports, July 12, 2004)
• "StarForce Copy Protection Causing User Ire" (Slashdot, June 11, 2004)
• The War on Game Pirates
• Boing Boing's article alleging StarForce is malware; StarForce's response
• "Opinion: The Problem with Protection" PC Gamer editor-in-chief Greg Vederman talks about his problems with StarForce